“It took me all day to think up a response.”
‘My daughter changed her profile picture. After 5 minutes I get a text. ‘I didn’t know she was dating a black boy, did you?’: Woman recounts unexpected racist interaction
‘I looked over at my beautiful baby girl, her blue eyes staring back at me. ‘I’m going to get through this.’ Fighting for my life was the only option.’: New mom survives Guillain-Barre Syndrome, ‘I’m grateful to be alive’
“I couldn’t even fathom what he was saying to me. I was 26 years old, and just gave birth to my daughter 3 weeks before. ‘I can’t stay in the hospital. I need to go home and take care of my newborn.’ ‘Call your family. Tell them they need to come here, right now,’ the doctor told me.”
‘Are you the husband?’ He replied, ‘Haley’s?’ ‘Yes. She and baby aren’t doing well. The baby needs to come NOW.’ I tried to frantically call him. He was completely unaware.’
“When I woke up, I was in a big open room full of other patients recovering. I had multiple nurses around me. One said, ‘Your son is in the NICU.’ My son?! I have a SON? This definitely wasn’t how I expected to find out!”
‘I don’t want to be a foster mom right now.’ The call came when I least expected it. EVERYTHING changed. ‘I’m not ready to lose them.’: Couple takes in 3 siblings, ‘Being a foster mom is a joy’
“‘We have a sibling set of three children.’ I interrupted, ‘THREE??’ It was then that we knew. I felt the dream of a newborn baby slipping away as we agreed to ‘a short while’ while they looked for a prepared family.”
‘Since I was 12, I wanted to be Mrs. Chris. He was my first kiss, my first love. Only there was one problem. Chris was older than me. We had to sneak around. I was obsessed with him.’
“My little sister and I were talking about our pasts. Of course, Chris came up. I made the comment that I needed to call him and see how he’s doing. A few hours later, the phone rang. I recognized the name on Caller ID right away. It was Chris! I was so excited that I jumped. However, it wasn’t Chris on the other end. It was his stepdad.”
‘The accountant pulled up our info and swiveled it towards us. There it was. In bold print. Under my husband’s name and title. Mine read: HOMEMAKER.’
“My first reaction was to gag. But, it kept popping up on the screen. Every time the numbers Dude scrolled to the home page. HOMEMAKER. My blood boiled. ‘WHO the heck was this person to slap that label on me?’”
‘Wake up!’ My daughter was slumped on the couch. There was a gurgling sound coming from her throat. She stopped breathing.’: Mom believes daughter died from ‘cardiac arrhythmia due to caffeine toxicity’ in energy drinks
“At 5:37 p.m., my daughter, who was always so full of life, was declared dead due to cardiac arrest. The nurses moved her over so I could sit next to her in bed. I laid there, talking to her all night, without a wink of sleep. I told her how proud I was of her and how much happiness came from being her mom. I didn’t know how I could ever live again.”
‘I take him to the doctor. ‘It’s an emergency!’ I remembered someone put sliced potatoes in their child’s sock, and it helped them feel better. No runny nose, he was cured. So, I did it!’
“I’ll tell you what it DID do. It made my husband think I had lost my mind when the baby is screaming and instead of being with him, I’m in the kitchen stomping around, gathering potatoes like a farmer and trying to slice them like I’m prepping to scalloped potatoes, like a mad woman, chanting, ‘Potatoes! He needs potatoes!’”
‘That’s when he told me. This stranger, this man I’d never seen before, wanted to hold the door open for us. He didn’t think he’d ever be able to again. He shouldn’t have even been alive.’
“’I don’t take walking for granted anymore.’ Those are the powerful words he uttered to me. I’d noticed him walking along the sidewalk as we approached the glass doors, but I didn’t expect him to yell for me to wait, to beg me to allow him to hold that door for us.”
‘I shopped at Nordstrom. He had hand me downs. My mom gave me money. He received lunch through the free lunch program. I didn’t have a job until I was 19. He painted farm fences at age 10.’: Wife explains how opposites attract in their relationship
“I don’t want to raise my kids to be as spoiled as I was, and he doesn’t want to raise his kids to be as poor as he was. I’m thankful to have married a man who went through the harder side of life, so he could teach a girl from privilege what actually matters in life.”